The festival was compered by the Beckenham composer David Bowie, who introduced top name groups to an estimated 3000 crowd. Among the local groups performing were Comus, who should go a long way with their distinct sound produced by a fusion of flute, violin and 12 stringed guitar. Gun Hill lacked perhaps the proffesional polish of Comus, but they obviously have a feeling for the blues. The Gas Works entertained with some sitirical songs but they also did some excellent blues, "Standing Stiff"' which featured harmonica, bottleneck guitar and Kazoo.

"The Strawbs" are becoming well-known nationally and put over their own special band of protest song forcefully.

      

Keith Christmas, who played on the L.P Space Oddity has built himself a reputation in folk clubs, performed some folk and blues numbers with superb guitar accompaniment. His first Lp was out at that time and included in the set was 'Robin Head'

Keith has been performing for about 5 years and has known the Arts Lab for about a year and it was Bowie who booked him.

When asked was the Festival his biggest gig to date Keith said" A hard one that, as the festival was not very successful in terms of numbers and was a bit lacking in atmosphere - I was regularly doing clubs like the Troubadour in Bristol and Les Cousins in London which were far more demanding".

Many years later Bridget St John remarked "I remember the day in general - the pagoda-like structure - being outside and it being a beautifully relaxed and sunny day - I don't remember my set - but my biggest memory is that after performing a group of us went and listened with David to his test pressing of the single Space Oddity - it was quite amazing and we played it over and over - it was so remarkable".

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